SAVE THE DATE IWD 2025
2025-03-07 18:30 - 21:00 UTC | Ludgate Hub, Townshend Street, Skibbereen, Cork, PE81T324, Ireland
Join us for International Women’s Day 2025 as we #ACCELERATE ACTION in health, nutrition, and skincare!

More information to follow…

HR and Health & Safety Workshop for Business Owners
2025-06-24 08:45 - 12:30 | Ludgate Hub, Townshend Street, Skibbereen, Cork, PE81T324, Ireland
This informative session will include key topics for employers, including a discussion on Pension Auto-Enrolment.
Join Ludgate and Peninsula for an expert-led workshop designed to help business owners stay compliant and confident in HR and Health & Safety practices.
Why attend?
✔️ Key legislative updates (Sick Pay, Pensions, Gender Pay Gap)
✔️ WRC & HSA inspection prep
✔️ 1:1 contract or risk assessment review
✔️ Interactive quiz & risk checklist

Connect & Co-Work by the Coast
2025-06-25 13:00 - 14:00 | Lough hyne, 5KM from Skibbereen, Skibbereen, Ireland
Welcome to Connect & Co-Work by the Coast for Remote & Hybrid Employees!

Need a change of scenery? Fancy working alongside like-minded remote and hybrid folks—with a sea breeze and a splash of adventure?
Join us for Connect & Co-Work by the Coast, a relaxed co-working day that blends productivity with connection, a shared lunch, and an optional refreshing sea swim.
Whether you’re looking to get through your inbox or spark new ideas in good company, this day is designed to energise your workday and widen your network.
What’s included:
💻 A welcoming co-working space with Wi-Fi and good vibes
🥗 A delicious, locally sourced group lunch
🌊 A (brave!) sea swim to awaken your senses
🤝 Casual networking with fellow remote and hybrid workers
☕ Coffee, chats, and good craic
Who it’s for:
Anyone working remotely or in a hybrid setup who wants to:

Shake up their routine
Meet others in the same boat
Feel part of a local community of remote workers

What to bring:

Your laptop and charger
Swim gear and a towel (if you’re dipping!)
A curious mind and an open attitude

Disclaimers: This event is for remote and hybrid employees
photos and videos may be taken for social media purposes

Contact Gavin for more information Gavin@ludgate.ie

Closing the Sale — B2B Workshop with Dr Maria Coakley
2025-09-24 10:00 - 14:30 | Ludgate Hub, Townshend Street, Skibbereen, Cork, PE81T324, Ireland
About this event

Why this workshop
Many sales professionals struggle with the final stages of the sales process, watching promising opportunities slip away. This workshop, delivered by Dr Maria Coakley will discuss techniques and strategies to help turn prospects into customers for sustainable growth.
What we’ll cover

Why deals don’t close (and how to unblock them)
The value of MEDDPICC for corporate sales (qualification that sticks)
Objection handling that reduces ghosting
Negotiation essentials for win-win outcomes
Closing techniques (and when to use which)
Onboarding for a smooth handover
Retain & grow the account (land & expand)
KPIs to track sales effectiveness

Who should attend
Entrepreneurs, sales professionals and account managers who want to improve close rates and grow accounts.
Delivered by
Workshop delivered by Dr Maria Coakley. Prior SIE/Ludgate sessions with Dr Coakley drew strong engagement and form part of our regional training roadmap. This workshop is action oriented, such that you shall get the opportunity to discuss practical ideas for your business. The workshop shall maximise peer to peer learning, best practice & discussion amongst participants.
Hosted by Ludgate with Skillnet Innovation Exchange — a national initiative connecting SMEs with supports, training and collaboration opportunities.

Sign up here

Pathway to Innovate - Clinic
2025-10-16 09:30 - 15:30 | Ludgate Hub, Townshend Street, Skibbereen, Cork, PE81T324, Ireland
Join us for the Innovation Clinic, designed to help SMEs connect, progress, up-skill and grow. The interactive sessions hosted by IRDG will help you to better understand your business’ challenges, assess internal skills capacity, and identify relevant opportunities. You will gain insights from industry leaders and be introduced to existing agency supports such as Enterprise Ireland, LEOs and Regional Skills Fora directly related to your needs. You’ll leave equipped with a 90-day innovation plan to drive innovation and entrepreneurial practices within your business.
Join us, where ambition meets action. Sign up here.

Sales Meets Innovation: The Masterclass for Commercial Growth
2025-11-05 10:00 - 12:00 | Ludgate Hub, Townshend Street, Skibbereen, Cork, PE81T324, Ireland
About This Event
In today’s fast-paced market, innovation alone isn’t enough, it must be tied directly to sales and customer value. Likewise, sales isn’t just about closing deals, it’s a strategic lever for identifying market needs, shaping innovation, and driving commercial growth.
This 2-hour masterclass led by Alan Maguire (Founder & CEO of ESI) explores the strategic connection between sales and innovation, and why one cannot succeed without the other.
This session will equip you with the tools and mindset to:

Use sales conversations to spark innovation
Position innovation as a driver of growth, not just creativity
Align sales and innovation strategies for maximum commercial impact

A Smart Way to Innovate – Design Thinking Essentials for SMEs
2025-11-11 10:00 - 11:00 | Online
Event Description
Join us for A Smart Way to Innovate – Design Thinking Essentials for SMEs, a one-hour online session designed to help business owners and leaders use design thinking to drive innovation and growth.
Delivered by Maria Cosgrove of Anu Innovation, this interactive webinar will introduce practical tools and methods to help you:

Understand your customers’ real needs
Generate new ideas with confidence
Test and refine solutions quickly
Build innovation capacity within your team

Participants will also have the opportunity to book a 30-minute one-to-one innovation advice session with Maria after the webinar.
📅 Date: Tuesday, 11th November 2025🕙 Time: 10:00am – 11:00am📍 Location: Online (register here)

Resilience, Motivation & Mindset with Stephen Redmond
2025-12-03 04:45 - 18:00 | Ludgate Hub, Townshend Street, Skibbereen, Cork, PE81T324, Ireland
As we close another year of collaboration between Ludgate Hub and the Skillnet Innovation Exchange, we invite you to a special session celebrating resilience, mindset, and motivation — qualities that power success not just in business, but in every part of life.
Our guest speaker, Stephen Redmond, is a world-record endurance athlete, author of Fastnet: The Final Challenge, and the first person in history to complete the Oceans Seven, the open-water swimming equivalent of the Seven Summits.
A proud West Cork native, Stephen will share the lessons he’s learned from years of pushing physical and mental limits — and how they apply to everyday challenges, whether you’re building a business, leading a team, or simply managing life’s currents.
You’ll learn how to:

Build resilience when facing change or uncertainty
Develop a mindset that sustains motivation and focus
Recover and refocus after setbacks
Apply endurance lessons to your work, wellbeing, and goals

Who should attend:
Entrepreneurs, employees, community members, students, innovators, and anyone looking to strengthen their mindset and motivation for the year ahead.
Sign up here

International Women’s Day 2026 When We Give, We Gain
2026-03-06 17:45 - 19:45 | Ludgate Hub, Townshend Street, Skibbereen, Cork, PE81T324, Ireland
Celebrate International Women’s Day 2026 by giving back and gaining growth together let’s make an impact IRL!

International Women’s Day 2026
When We Give, We Gain
Join us for an inspiring in-person celebration of International Women’s Day 2026, centred on empowerment, connection, and the powerful idea that giving leads to gaining. Expect meaningful conversation, shared stories, and an evening that celebrates the strength of community and collaboration.
This International Women’s Day, When We Give, We Gain brings together four inspiring women, Caragh Bell, Maria O’Donovan, Maria Archer, and Mairead O’Driscoll, whose work spans education, business, law, and community development. Each speaker offers a unique perspective on how giving time, expertise, advocacy, and leadership creates opportunity. Together, their stories reflect the Give To Gain theme, showing that when women are supported to thrive, the impact extends far beyond the individual strengthening communities, organisations, and society as a whole.

Free Webinar - Accelerating Innovation
2026-04-29 11:00 - 12:00 | Online
Accelerating Innovation – Free Webinar | 29th April, 11am–12pm
Join us on Wednesday 29th April from 11am to 12pm for Accelerating Innovation, a free one-hour webinar delivered by Brian Kennedy — a technology and business leader with 34 years of experience, including roles as EMEA CIO at Doosan and Head of Digital & Innovation at Expleo.
Whether your ideas aren’t moving forward fast enough, or you’ve launched something that didn’t land as expected, this session gives you a practical, repeatable process to go from idea to validated prototype — without waste.
This webinar is for you if you are:

A founder or product team with ideas that stall before they gain traction
A startup, scale-up or SME that has launched something that didn’t quite work as expected
An organisation looking for a simple, repeatable way to evaluate and test new products or services
Anyone who wants to build less and learn more

What you’ll take away:

A simple, repeatable process to move from idea to validated prototype without waste
Practical methods to test demand before committing development time or money
Four ready-to-use templates you can run yourself or with your team immediately

This event is open to both members and non-members. Places are limited — register now to secure your spot.

Selling @ Scale – Building a Sales Engine for Growth | Ludgate Hub
2026-05-13 10:00 - 14:30 | Ludgate Hub, Townshend Street, Skibbereen, Cork, PE81T324, Ireland
Overview

A 4.5-hour practical masterclass for Leaders & Sales Managers ready to scale revenue.

Event Description
Scaling revenue requires more than ambition — it requires structure, discipline, and a repeatable sales engine.Join us at Ludgate Hub on Wednesday, 13 May (10.00am–2.30pm) for an intensive half-day workshop led by Dr Maria Coakley, focused on helping companies build the foundations needed to sell at scale.
This session is designed for leaders and sales managers who want to move from reactive selling to predictable, scalable growth.
This practical session will focus on:
1. Foundation & Mindset – Establishing the commercial discipline and leadership mindset required for scale.
2. Pipeline Management & Forecasting – CRM essentials, visibility, forecasting accuracy, and performance metrics that matter.
3. Sales Process Design, Automation & Enablement – Building a repeatable sales process that supports consistency and growth.
4. Objection Handling & Closing – Strengthening deal control and increasing conversion rates.
5. Account Management & Growth – Expanding existing accounts and increasing lifetime value.
6. Sales & Marketing Alignment – Ensuring both functions work toward shared revenue goals.
7. Building & Managing Your Sales Team – Hiring, structuring, and leading a sales function that performs at scale.
Who Should Attend

Founders transitioning from owner-led sales
Commercial Directors
Sales Managers
Growth Leaders
Senior decision-makers preparing for scale

Why Attend?
You’ll leave with:

A clear sales structure that supports scaling
Practical tools you can implement immediately
A stronger forecasting framework
Greater clarity on how to build and manage a scaling sales team

This is not a theory session — it’s designed for execution.
About the Speaker
Dr Maria Coakley is an experienced commercial strategist and scale advisor working with ambitious Irish SMEs and growth-stage companies. She specialises in sales strategy, leadership development, and helping companies transition from early traction to structured, scalable growth.

SIGN UP HERE
